La Media – Misleading by Misdirection

Years ago, the Bookworm Room took a leadership position in challenging man-made global warming dogma and I would comfortably assert that we have been winning the arguments. However, the battle is far from over.

Today’s Chicago Tribune posted a column published by two credentialed climate scientists from the U. of Illinois, attributing this winter’s warm winter conditions and tornado activity to man-made CO2 emissions in the atmosphere.

The warmer-than-normal weather this winter and early spring was the result of an extended Pacific Ocean-warming phenomenon called “La Nina”. This phenomenon has been linked to diverse weather conditions around the world, from severe drought conditions in our Southwest and Brazil, to warmer-than-normal winters in the upper Midwest to reduced monsoon activity in southern Asia. Warmer-than-normal winter and spring temperatures are also conducive to tornado formation when they clash and create turbulence with cold air from the winter jet stream.

Keep in mind that one of the paramount principles of scientific endeavor, routinely violated by man-made climate change proponents, is “Occam’s Razor”, which stipulates that you look at the simplest, most obvious explanations first!

So, let’s ask the question… are increasing levels of atmospheric CO2, present in concentrations measured in parts-per-million, responsible for massive warming events in the central Pacific? Does this sound like a reasonable explanation?

The best leading indicator of a La Nina event is not the amount of CO2 in the air, but subsurface water temperatures (i.e., below the ocean surface, not at the surface where CO2 would be absorbed from the air) around the Pacific Rim. The most likely cause for these temperature upwellings, supported by satellite and deep-sea surveyor data, is underwater volcanic activity, which we are only just beginning to understand. Bookworm aficionados are very well-read and aware, so they will recall reading that these past few years have been seismically active around the Pacific Rim. Undersea volcanos, like terrestrial volcanos, release huge amounts of heat, which must go somewhere. In water and in air, heat rises.

After La Nina ended this spring, we returned to cooler than normal temperatures in the Midwest and eastern U.S., which will probably persist through 2012, as a countervailing, cooling El Nino begins to form in the Pacific. In fact, the last 10 years have seen a consistent, measurable period of global cooling, not heating, even as atmospheric CO2 concentrations increased.

In addition, the pioneering work of Danish astrophysicist Henrik Svensmark, a man who’s name may one day rank in the Astronomer’s pantheon with Galileo and Copernicus, has laid out testable theories on how solar activity affects cloud cover, precipitation and global temperatures that are completely changing perceptions regarding climate change and, frankly, render the effects of CO2 (which, in the end, is just an insignificant greenhouse gas when compared to water) on climate as irrelevant. Thus far, the tests of his theories are coming out very positive and serve to explain both observed climate warming and cooling cycles.

The facade of man-made global warming is crumbling, but far too many credentialed “scientists” have vested their reputations and research budgets in man-made global warming postulations for them to give up lightly. So, they double down because they have to. Unfortunately, too many citizens will be fooled by their credentials to question their premises.

Given the credentials of the authors of this Chicago Tribune column, they in all likelihood knew all of this. They just didn’t feel that the Chicago Tribune’s readers should know about this details, because it doesn’t happen to fit their ideological meme. So, they misdirect.

Like this:

On a different plain entirely, we’ll have drought until Obama leaves office. It’s Biblical!

It’s so sad about that Global warming thing, though. I was really looking forward to English wine. Oh, well, that’s what Heaven is for, I suppose.

Danny Lemieux

You should still be able to enjoy ice wine, though.

Even Northern Michigan makes good wines (Leelanau Peninsula) and has fine wineries.

That is very distinct from the very Liberal windy and cold Chicago North Shore, which is renown for its whines and whiners.

Mike Devx

It seems to me that you have to remember one thing: These people always gravitate to those problems where they can promote a solution that involves controlling our lives. Even if the global warmists totally lose the debate 100%, they will not go away. They will find another cause, and seize upon it, and off they go again. And I can *guarantee* you that whatever cause they choose, their solution will require all of us to give up our freedom (and our money).

These people primarily seek to control us. The issue of the month, or of the year, or of the decade, almost doesn’t matter. It is all about control and power, and they want you to SERVE. You can see this is true simply by monitoring their behavior over the years; you will see, in issue after issue, that every solution to every issue is an assault on your freedom. Never once do they agitate to increase your freedoms. Not once.

Michael Adams

Which is why, Mike, we need to study and to teach, history. If one knows enough history, no one can pee on ones back and claim it is raining. (One of my favorite lines from Hester Street.)

Writing this blog is a labor of love. However, if you'd like to donate money for my efforts, please feel free to do so: